Handloom Weaving in West Bengal, India

I had oppertunity to visit the weaving villages of West Bengal in 1989. These villages are situated on the wesern bank of the river Ganges, approximately 70 km from the Bangladesh boarder in the center of the state, and about 105 km noth west of Calcutta. At the time there were 2,000,000 looms operational in the area. I visited 2 workshops, and photogaraphs below indicate this ( ). Workshop-1 was run by a extended family and Workshop-2 was run by all women group.

In This Section

• Travels Among the Weavers of Bengal (article)
  Printed in South Asia Forum Quarterly, vol 4, no 4: Fall, 1991
  reprinted with permission from the editor of "South Asia Forum Quarterly"
• Preparation for weaving
• Handweaving & Loom Embroidery
• Woven Samples